Chapter 1

My earliest memory of this world is of my mother's singing. Her voice is gentle and soothing; not too high pitched nor too low pitched. It undulates like the flow of water in the creek at the back of our home. Sometimes it reminds me of that other world, a memory from a place very different from here. In that world, there were many talented singers. If my mother was born in that world, then surely she'll be a famous singer or celebrity.

I always dream of that world. Those dreams were very vivid that sometimes I am confused if I am still living in that world or in this one. In that world, I was already an adult. I was a graduate student who love reading books – novels, stories, fairy tales, you name it. In that world I also read about the concept of reincarnation, and that is why I know that I have already died and reincanated in this world, a world that is like the fantasy world I always read about in my past life- a world where magic is an everyday commodity and fairies and spirits live together with humans.

I don't know when and how I died in that world though. Unlike some of the novels that I read, I do not have the complete memory of my past life, only those memory fragments that I dream about. In a sense, I might just be a young child with a very active imagination. Regardless, whether in this world or in that world, my goal is to live a carefree and simple life.

Unfortunately, this idyllic country life is not meant to be. When I was six years old a series of events happened that changed the course of my life.

To be honest, even until two years later, I still do not know what happened. One day my father, together with my mother, went off to do a job comissioned by the local branch of the Magician's Association. You see, my father was a State Magician, someone like a public servant. My mother, though not having the title of State Magician herself, was a magic craftsman and freelance magician. She occasionally helps my father out on his jobs. Sometimes, the job takes long enough that the both of them don't return home for a few days, a week at most. During those times, they leave me with Old Mrs. Rowan, the fae who shares our home with us. She is a strict old lady who gives off the headmistress vibe who had helped my parents look after me as a baby.

The last time I saw of my mother and father was when they went to my bedside and kissed me goodbye, as they were wont to do whenever they go out on their jobs. On that morning, I was cranky as I haven't had much sleep the night before so I didn't say much and just accepted their kisses and reminders. If only I had known, then I would have hugged them and told them I love them, and how grateful I am to be their child. Or better yet, prevented them from leaving. But what I have are fragmented memories of what might was my previous life and not prophetic dreams of what might come. At least on that morning my father laughed and joked about how I was not a morning person like my mother. Rather than dwell on regrets, I believe my parents would like me to remember the happy memories I have of them.

It was two weeks later when he came at our doorstep- the Marquis of Sever. He was very tall, at least to my six-year-old self he is as tall as the birch trees lining our graden. He has a beautiful blond hair like my mother, but unlike her golden locks, his has a very light color, almost silver. In fact, his hair color is more similar to mine. His eyes, unlike my mother's warm blue ones, are a very cold piercing blue; but when he looked my way, they seemed melancholy ...and lonely?

"You must be Susannah's daughter," he told me in a deep but gentle voice, "You inherited the Nieve family looks, except your eyes, which are your father's."

Ah, this person must be very close to my parents. He never really looks at me but at my parents in my features. But why was he never mentioned by my mother and father?

He came in with Mr. Willows, the head of the Magician's Association, and my father's supervising officer. Mr. Willows is a lanky man with a scholarly air who sometimes came to our house on business so I am familiar with him. They told me that my parent's went missing in the middle of a mission and their whereabouts are currently unknown. Since I am a minor living all alone, it is the responsibility of the Marquis, my nearest of kin, to see to my welfare while my parents are gone. They tried to be circumspect about it but what was left unsaid was, my parents are gone and they are not optimistic about their return.

Of course I do not believe my parents are dead, and still do not believe it. Somewhere, they are still alive; they just can't go back home for now. But as a young child, they refused to believe me when I told them so and treated me as a poor grieving orphan who is yet to accept the lost of my parents and arranged for me to be adopted by the Marquis. In this world as with the other one, minors, even orphaned ones, are given to relatives or to foster care in the absence of parents. I did try to argue since I am technically not alone, not with Aunt Rowan, but they dismissed my protestations as that of a child in denial of the lost of her parents. In the end, I was whisked off to the Marquis' manor, several miles from my home, to live there as his adopted daughter. I wasa given the name Liliane Nieve, and I am to be raised as one of the nobility, my mother being the cousin of the Marquis.